Music Matters Definitive Blue Note 45 RPM and 33 & 1/3 RPM vinyl series (pt7)

BTW, Frank Wess was not on BN but Savory and Prestige...sorry. How about I insert Sheila Jordan, who was on BN. Sorry for the confusion.

 

GREAT POST !

 

I won't debate most of what you're saying as these issues have been discussed ad nauseum. No point in beating a dead horse and having circular discussions.

However, I just want to point out two things.

In your first issue, you said "I suspect as time evolves, other titles will be released". I find that statement curious. It is a point some bring up repeatedly and I keep wondering whether they are aware of the passage of time. Last year when the initial batch of 33rpm titles were announced, this is exactly what was said verbatim when some voiced their concerns, yet here we are. Is it going to be Deja Vu again next year as well? This isn't to downplay the validity of the other issues you mentioned of course. Not at all. We're all on the outside looking in and passing judgments. We aren't running the business or taking financial risks in this venture, so it's easy to criticize. I get that. Nevertheless, we reserve the right to criticize and voice discontent because we are paying customers. Voicing our dissatisfaction and dissenting opinions if we have them is necessary. We should not be fawning sycophants always at the ready to explain things away. Someone brought up emailing MM directly. I think that's a great point. We should shoot them an email with our thoughts. I will shortly. Probably after the hustle and bustle of the holidays.

Back to "time evolving"; perhaps other titles (I read that as fresh titles, not retreads) will be released as time evolves, but we're not immortal. People who don't know any better reading that statement would think MM recently dipped their toes in the market. It will be 2015 in a little over a week. MM has been releasing titles since 2007. That's nearly a decade. The odometer on this thing called life has usurped almost a decade from our existence. Are we really sitting on time? How long is this evolving going to take? Half my nieces and nephews weren't even born when MM started. There's literally a new generation of human beings in my family. At this rate of "time evolving", I will witness the next generation after them come forth.

With regards to your third point, that is simply not true at all. The AP pressing of Ike Quebec's Blue and Sentimental is not out of print. It's in stock everywhere and is readily available at Elusive Disc, Music Direct, Acoustic Sounds and Soundstage Direct. I'm not sure where you're getting that information.

 

On my system with my ears and my wife's as 'blind test' this was my observation, quite surprising to me actually: Undercurrent and Moanin' 33rpm sound better, but we really liked the 45s of Sidewinder and Page One more.

 

Music Matters have curated a fairly broad catalogue of BN re-issues, including a few unreleased titles. I don't get all the moanin' !

 

What's tomorrow's winning lottery number?

 

You know, it's been since 2007 and we're finally advanced enough to hear Gene Harris and Horace Parlan. Give it another ten, fifteen years, I'll bet Elmo Hope and Herbie Nichols may be able to sell, too.

In the meantime-- we can trust Michael Cuscuna to protect us from Ornette Coleman and Eddie Gale and Cecil Taylor and all of that other, so-called "avant-garde" dissonant crap!

 

protect you ... not me.
he is welcome anytime

 

I like that dissonant so-called "avant-garde".

 

Yeah, Maiden Voyage for the upteenth time. BUT, Maiden Voyage as you've probably never, ever heard it before. I'm willing to bet that once heard, every other version you own (unless it's a mint original - and even then, that copy will be relegated to collectors status) will become sale fodder. This new Music Matters version is the ultimate, go-to, very best version that will be available. Miss this one and you'll regret it for the rest of your life.

 

However, Basra was luckily issued as a MM 45. An amazing record set.

 

Then you'll miss out. If Ron is, as you phrase it, double dipping, try thinking why he'd do that? There would have to be a good reason, and I can give you one: he's sold out of some of those particular titles and wanted to have some copies to sell to those who missed out on the 45 series. Second (and ultimately more important reason: he wasn't completely happy with some of the early efforts and has gone back to try and correct those diffencies with the 33 series.

 

And therein lies the real reason some of these titles are being re-released - Music Matters could improve the sound of those titles. And Ron wants the best sound he can offer for these titles he loves so much. Not a bad reason if I do say so myself.......

 

NO!

 

Hopefully not. Bop/Hard Bop was THE dissonant music of its time ("chinese music" acc. to our adored Pops). Luckily the progressive music fans of the 40s and 50s did not share your wishful thinking and supported them, and actually (or better since 40 years ago at least) they are mainstream, or even old-fashioned. The "avant-garde" of each period makes our music moving: Monteverdi, Beethoven, Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg/Berg/Webern, Boulez, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Berio, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane etc. were there and managed to fight against conservatism and the status-quo, despite poor sales. And they prevailed.

 

Exactly. People forget that MM are cannibalising their own 45 RPM sales with a lot of these 33s.. They are obviously doing it for a reason.

 

In that case you completely missed my point. The previous MMs and APs didn't suddenly just go bad. They are good enough for me to enjoy as a music lover. In fact, they are all great. Every one of them. I have a huge wish list of in-print reissues of great music, other than these double dips. I don't see the point of continuously replacing my existing good copies with new-and-improved ones and miss out on other stuff I don't have at all.

Hell, I didn't go out and trade-in my 2011 Subaru STi just because the 2015 is vastly improved. I didn't trade in my DLP HDTV because something else came out that is much better. What I have it good enough, and none of it got worse than when it was new and the best.

Carry on with your audiophile record collecting, but leave me out. I'm busy loving music.

 

Maybe the 33 rpm's are out to pay for the 45 rpm's that didn't sold to well.
Maybe they had to keep their head above the water, in that case nothing to be ashamed for.
Just a posibility.

I'm glad they put out the 33 rpm's, hate it to went to my recordplayer every 8 minutes.

 

I think they will all sell out eventually. 45 & 33 alike.

 

Hope so, they and the music deserve it.

 

Does Maiden Voyage now have Wayne Shorter playing on it? That would indeed be a whole new experience!

 

Both Grant Green releases will be automatic buys for me. Some of the other stuff also looks great. Geez, I'm retired but I might have to go back to work to be able to get these!

 

Thank you for setting me straight. My information was an assumption. Simple as that. So I messed up, darn it.

As for "as time evolves" comment, I get it, how long do we have to wait? That was a bandaid rhetorical comment wrapped in wishful thinking, underpinned with hope. If you look at MMs short history of releases, however, there is a lot of stuff that blew my mind and was new to me. I got exposed to Gil Melle, Thad Jones, Tina Brooks (I did purchase Mosaic's lp set in the early 1980s), Horace Parlan, Pete La Roca, Louis Smith, Cliff Jordan, Dizzy Reese, Grachan Moncur III, and others. Further, MM has deepened the available catalog of well known artists, who we all know. And they released these great lps with just enough frequency that I was able to acquire them, and not all at once. But like you, I sometimes tend to focus on what is not available that I would like to see. Usually records where the cost to acquire a decent original is ridiculous.

But to the depth of the offerings, no matter the label (I am positive there are exceptions), we see the same records released over and over again. This subset has been deemed by the label Gods and music critics to be the creme de la creme, the standards, if you will. If you want more, dig. That is why my poorly chosen comment is 'rhetorical'; we may have to wait a lifetime. That said, MM is including a few tasty crumbs in the 2015 set, upgrading a few others. And, I expect next year we will be graced with a few more. If you are 80, I feel your pain.

I think writing to them with suggestions is a great idea. I suspect they get suggestions, I know I have told them mine, all of which goes through the 'can it be economic' filter and are the masters in good enough shape to be MM quality. Yet we may have to wait longer than an eternity to get George Braith's three BN titles, as one example.

Again, thanks for your additive comments.

 

I have an early-ish Van Gelder, and it's never sounded particularly good to me, so I'm happy to get this new one from MM. I briefly had the AP 45, but found it disappointing. May have been a source issue with that one.

 

Me too. I have have an original Van Gelder in EXC+ condition. Music is superb. Sonics are not. Really looking forward to the MM re-issue.